My animals have had a rough fall season. While normally, they are healthy, I’ve been on the phone to a vet at least once a week! First Freedom sliced his leg open while hunting, then Kroni suffered a mild colic, then he had conjunctivitis, then Freedom abscessed, and yesterday Kroni showed colic symptoms again. Complicating the fact is that I gave him a shot on Saturday which seems to have made his neck sore, so it’s unclear whether his symptoms are a reaction to pain from that, or pain from colic. Unlike most colics, he was also running a low grade fever last night.
To top it off, yesterday one of my dogs got very ill. He went from being his normal, bouncy Westie self to a sad, lethargic dog. A trip to his vet revealed that he has not just Lyme disease, but also another tick-borne virus. Luckily, he’s already looking more chipper — partially from the medication, but also from being hydrated.
Dehydration is something that concerns me about Kroni, too. I’ve been tempting him to drink by offering him a soupy mix of water and a tiny bit of beet pulp and that seems to be working. This morning he drank some more and the fever was gone . . . but he’s still putting on his colic face and acting very subdued. He was pleased that he’s been cleared to eat some hay soaked in water. He has been most annoyed to see me feeding Freedom!
In the meantime, I’m buying stock in Banamine. I’ve gone through more tubes in the past month than in the past 12 years combined. Maybe, I should just consider myself to have been very lucky up until now. I just hope that luck returns.